US, Mexico Advance to Gold Cup Final

The US team put together a professional performance advancing with a 1-0 victory on Wednesday night against Panama. It wasn’t the team’s best performance in the tournament and there were far too many stretches of the match that Panama looked the superior team, but at the end of the day the US team advances as expected to the finals.

Many are praising US Head Coach Bob Bradley for his substitutions for turning the match around. However, Bob Bradley does not deserve credit for substituting in Landon Donovan. Donovan should have been in the starting lineup and it was a mistake to bench him to start the match. Sure Sacha Kljestan and the US squad played well against Jamaica without him, but Bradley’s halftime substitution remedied a mistake that the US was lucky did not come back to haunt them.

As for Freddy Adu, Bradley deserves all the credit for that substitution. While it made perfect sense on paper because Adu has great vision and can break down a bunkered defense, inserting a player who has not played for a couple of years was a huge gamble. He rolled the dice and it paid big dividends for the US.

As for Adu, it is hard not to be happy for him. Very few have had completely unrealistic expectations heaved upon them as teenagers. After failing to live up to those expectations, Adu put his head down and went to work. He went from France to Greece to the second division in Turkey eating plenty of humble pie along the way just to play regularly. With that playing time he gained some confidence and played himself back into the picture with the US team. Hopefully, he can continue to build on these positive developments and continue to resurrect his club career moving forward.

Mexico in Final as Expected

As for their opponents in the final, it took Mexico a little longer than expected, but they finally put away Honduras 2-0 in extra time. Javier Hernandez chipped in his seventh goal of the tournament and Aldo De Nigris provided a spark off the bench. The final Saturday should be an epic showdown between the US and Mexico at the Rose Bowl.

Win for Houston

The semifinal of the Gold Cup hopefully confirmed once again this city loves soccer. The diversity of this city was on display at Reliant with many fans supporting Mexico, Honduras, and the US. Whether it is regional championships like the Gold Cup or smaller tournaments featuring club teams, this city continues to support soccer as well as any city in this country.

U-17’s fall to Uzbekistan 2-1

The US U-17’s put in an inconsistent performance and got punished 2-1 in the U-17 World Cup earlier in the day. Second half substitute Alfred Koroma scored his second goal of the tournament and made a case for additional playing time. US ‘keeper Kendall McIntosh also played well for the US.

In a key moment in the second half, the referee denied the US team a possible penalty and then awarded their opponents a controversial penalty that they converted for the game winner. In fairness though, the officiating crew flagged Uzbekistan for offsides on what should have been a second first half goal. While the officiating was not great, it was not to blame for the US team’s poor performance.

The good news is that with the Czech Republic defeating New Zealand 1-0, the group is wide open as every team now has three points. As a result, a US win against New Zealand and the US advances to the knockout stages of the U-17 World Cup. The US team’s final match in the group will be played Saturday at 6pm on ESPNU.